Outdoor Owls Cobham

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The leadership team and staff have the highest aspirations for all children. They provide a highly ambitious curriculum that the knowledgeable and motivating staff implement extremely well. They are highly passionate about ensuring that children are given the best opportunities to develop, flourish as people and become well-balanced and happy individuals. Staff are exceptionally good at nurturing children and encouraging them to learn as they explore, engage and experiment outdoors. Children make excellent progress in their learning and development.

Staff make the most of simple, but enjoyable, activities to develop children's communication, critical thinking and problem-solving skills. For example, staff hang ice shapes with flowers frozen into them from branches. They also place pots of ice around the camp, such as near the fire, near the sitting logs and on a book stand. Staff encourage children to predict which ice might melt first and why. Children receive encouragement to compare ice sizes and locations and consider whether that changes their thoughts. Staff use activities and discussions to build on children's vocabulary and communication as they encourage them to talk through their thoughts. Children share tree names and describe the colours of their bark, and they investigate leaves and are eager to show what they have found with their friends. Staff incorporate a respect for the environment within these activities.

Children demonstrate that they are extremely happy in the company of their friends and the staff. They are highly respectful towards each other and considerate, even from a young age. Their behaviour is excellent, and any minor incidents are sensitively discussed and resolved. Children fully engage in the activities and resources around them, and they eagerly support their friends. For example, while a child climbs and balances on a low branch, he shares with his struggling friend how he could also do this by pointing out a branch to hold onto and how to safely place his feet.

What does the early years setting do well and what does it need to do better?

• Leaders are inspirational and have an unwavering vision of what they want children to achieve. Children's well-being is at the heart of everything leaders do. They want children to engage, be inquisitive, learn to self-regulate and look fondly back on their childhood memories. Each child is recognised as a unique individual, and staff enthusiastically use their interactions to build on children's learning exceptionally well.
• The staff expertly provide a curriculum that is centred on engaging children in exploration and discovery. There is a strong focus on supporting children to lead their own play from an early age, giving them the tools to assess risks, develop a 'can-do' approach and become resilient. Staff use their knowledge and interactions, along with books and online reference tools, with children to seamlessly promote all areas of learning. For example, collecting sticks and bark leads to a wealth of new vocabulary, construction projects, imaginative play and creative ways to make marks and draw in the dirt.
• Partnership with parents is exceptionally strong. Leaders clearly share with parents their aim to provide children with excellent outdoor experiences, to give them the best foundations for their future learning. Staff and parents talk daily and have an online app and 'family day' sessions where they talk and share information. Staff share detailed written activity ideas with parents so they can build on their children's learning at home. For example, they send out plans for what parents need for an ice activity, how they can make it, the questions they could ask their children and what learning they gain. They also include ways to extend or adapt the activity, which parents state they appreciate.
• Children skilfully use what they have learned from staff to manage their own risks. For example, on 'adventure walks', they learn to safely explore the natural world, building on their communication, physical and social skills by working together to achieve a goal. They confidently climb, learn to negotiate steep slopes and create their own fun by making 'snow angels' in the leaves. Children's personal experiences, such as snow sledging on holiday, are replicated with a bark sledge and the dirt 'snow' slope, much to their glee. They develop positive attitudes to learning while having fun, with enthusiastic staff facilitating this extremely well.
• Staff deploy themselves highly effectively, keeping in touch by walkie-talkie, to maintain safety and high-quality interactions with the children. Staff motivate children to learn and encourage them to participate in challenging experiences. Children concentrate intently as they cook their crumpets on the fire and then butter them. They share how they must walk behind the seating logs to keep their friends near the fire safe. Children confidently create chutes and share why pine cones move quicker down one chute than the other. Children have extensive opportunities to develop their physical skills as they negotiate obstacle courses, collect twigs and sticks and use scissors to cut leaves to create pictures.
• Staff are excellent role models, and children build exceptionally close bonds with them. Children are very kind and thoughtful and help their friends willingly. All children receive excellent support, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Leaders and staff work very closely with parents and professionals to enable children to have the best experiences and enjoy the environment. Staff precisely identify any delay in development and target their support to close these gaps.
• Leaders continually reflect on the provision they provide and how they can enhance it. Staff receive consistent support and training, and their own professional development and personal well-being are given a high priority.